Jim Miller and Terrance McKinney both previewed their UFC 334 lightweight bout on Just Scrap Radio with Cole Shelton this week, and neither man sounds like he’s planning on a judges’ decision. Miller, the UFC’s all-time appearances leader, said he wants to win violently. McKinney answered by saying he’s the better grappler of the two and expects a flawless night. They meet on the prelims Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
Miller, who goes in as the underdog, said the booking came together almost instantly. “It took probably 90 seconds between him sending the offer and me saying Let’s do it,” he said. His read on the fight is that McKinney’s aggression is the opening. “He’s a fast starter. For me, I don’t want to be the guy to lose a decision to him,” Miller said, adding later, “The harder guys come at me, the easier it is to take advantage.” He credited McKinney’s speed and the way he links his striking and grappling, then said he expects to find a strike and capitalize once the pace gets frantic.
The fight is close to home for Miller, who fought in Newark in May and said skipping air travel makes his fight week feel like it lags by about a day. He’s also running out of runway. Miller plans to retire after his 50th UFC fight, which puts the finish line two bouts past Saturday, and UFC.com framed its feature on him around the final year of his career. If he wins, he said he isn’t sure what’s next, but he named one fight he’d like: a rematch with Beneil Dariush. “We are both older guys. I think it is a fun fight and I’m down,” Miller said.
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McKinney, born in Chicago and raised in Washington, called fighting at MSG a bucket-list item and said he got the call the same day the bout went out on the broadcast. His grappling claim rests on what he’s seen from Miller recently. “I saw him grapple Chase Hooper, and I think I’m the better grappler,” McKinney said. Still, he knows his cleanest route is standing. “I can see me picking him apart for three rounds, but I think we have the tools to get a finish in the first round,” he said.
McKinney’s 2026 has gone both directions. He entered UFC Seattle in March at 18-8 and stopped Kyle Nelson in 24 seconds, then was TKO’d by King Green in a UFC 329 main card bout on July 11. In April he publicly questioned why he’d never received a Performance of the Night bonus. If he beats Miller, McKinney said he’d like to return early next year on a rumored card in Orlando, where he trains, and believes one more win after this puts him in line for a ranked opponent.
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My take: Miller has the right game plan and the wrong opponent to execute it against for very long. McKinney’s first two minutes are a hazard to anyone, and Miller is basically inviting him to come forward. I’ll gently push back on McKinney’s grappling claim, since a scramble against a Miller with nothing left to protect is a bad place to test a theory, but McKinney doesn’t need to win there. I’ve got McKinney by first-round TKO, and if Miller survives to Round 2, the guillotine starts looking very real.